Winnipeg campaign aims to let foodies fall in love with an old favourite

Have you seen the billboards around Winnipeg — the ones with the word ‘potahto’?

If you guessed they were about potatoes, you guessed right.

Larry McIntosh from Peak of the Market joined the Global News Morning crew recently with Alex Rohne to promote Potahto Week in Winnipeg.

The seven day event is brand new in 2018, running Feb. 19-25.

Potato, potahto, no matter how you say it, McIntosh said the starchy vegetable has gotten a bad reputation, and Potahto Week is all about helping people reconnect with Manitoba spuds.

Over 50 locations will promote potatoes with a view to making the much-maligned edible interesting again. Restaurants were challenged to come up with something that Winnipeggers can go out and enjoy and then go home and try to make it themselves.

“Every restaurant is doing something completely different. We know that there’s going to be a lot of gnocchi, there’s going to be some perogies, a couple places are even doing pizza with potatoes” Rohne said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Every restaurant is doing something completely different. We know that there's going to be a lot of gnocchi, there's going to be some perogies, a couple places are even doing pizza with potatoes" Rohne said.

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Diners can expect potatoes to be baked, boiled, fried, mashed, stuffed and transformed into things like latkes. Every dish at every restaurant will have one thing in common: they will all contain Manitoba-grown potatoes.

RELATED: Potato processing plant in Portage la Prairie getting $460 million expansion

The ultimate goal of the campaign is to change the way people think about potatoes.

“People forget it’s a vegetable,” McIntosh said. “It has great nutritional value. There’s no fat, no sodium, no cholesterol. A medium potato is just 100 calories.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "People forget it's a vegetable," McIntosh said. "It has great nutritional value. There's no fat, no sodium, no cholesterol. A medium potato is just 100 calories."

The potato-promoters said the tubers are highly versatile and healthy.  High in vitamin C, a medium potato contains 45 per cent of your recommended daily intake, three times more than the vitamin C contained in a tomato.

Spuds also have twice the potassium as a banana, plus magnesium, which helps you sleep at night.

To find out which restaurants are participating in Potahto week, go to their website.  Remember to vote for your favourite.

“From fast food to fine dining and everything in between,” McIntosh said.